The next few days were proving to be the more difficult part of the journey. The next town wasn’t for a few days even on horseback.

After that night at the inn, Kwon decided to let Seungri stay with him, if only to get more information out of him. Clara was the only bright thing in his life during this journey. Her smiles and laughter and womanly nature kept the two men in check.

The closer they got to the Capitol, the more anxious Kwon was starting to get. Seungri hadn’t spoken to him about that night since then. It was starting to eat him up inside.

And the hooded man who was following them could tell that time was getting close. He hadn’t sent a letter to the Duke in a week and he felt like it was about time he did so.

He sat off in a safe distance to their campsite and continued to observe them. The man that had joined them was proving to be a problem for his mission. He would barely leave their side.

Finally nightfall had come upon them all.

The hooded man had dozed off slightly in the woods. He was fighting to keep his eyes open. Seungri was very observant and he could sense the man every so often but he couldn’t see him.

“I’m going to go gather more firewood.” Kwon and Clara nodded to him as he went off into the woods.

He walked in carefully and hid behind the brush as not to be seen by whoever it was that had been following them for the last week.

It had been about an hour or so and Clara started to worry. “What’s taking him so long?”

Kwon shrugged. “Maybe he had something else to take care of.”

Clara rolled her eyes at him. “You know what I mean.”

“Yeah I do and he’s a grown man. He can take care of himself well I’m sure. Let’s just go to bed for now. Maybe he’ll be back in the morning.” He got up and went to lay on his sleeping bag that he had outside of the tent.

Ever since Seungri joined their travels, only Clara has been using the tent. Rightly so, seeing as Seungri continuously would ask them if they were really together or not. Clara sighed and went into the tent and closed her eyes to sleep.

It was then that the hooded man had made his move. Slowly he had gotten out of his hiding spot and approached the camp. Looking to make sure that Seungri and Clara weren’t going to pop up out of nowhere, he walked over to Kwon.

He pulled out a bag and dug inside of it. It was full of a black powder. Right as he was about to toss it onto Kwon, a glowing pale blue light emitted around him. The hooded man took a step back. He was not expecting this.

“What do you want with his majesty the Prince?” A voice came from behind him. He turned to see that Seungri had returned and held a sword in his hand. Where did he even conceal that?

“I’m just making sure that he doesn’t ever remember who he is. My job.” The hooded man replied.

“Show your face.” Seungri spoke softly so that he wouldn’t wake either Clara or Kwon. The hooded man chuckled.

“Why should I? Who are you to tell me to reveal myself?”

Calmly Seungri replied, “I am one of the knights of the kingdom sworn to protect the crown and find the prince. Now reveal yourself.” He had walked closer, placing his blade underneath the tip of his hood. Without waiting for a reply, he pushed the hood off the stranger’s face and his eyes went wide.

“Daesung…what are you doing?”

“Protecting my family that’s what.” The brown haired man said. He was also a knight of the Dragon Kingdom. Sworn to protect the Crown and locate the missing Prince.

“What do you mean protect your family? You’re a knight. That should be protection enough.”

Daesung shook his head. “You don’t understand.”

Seungri put down his sword and sat down on one of the logs. “Then tell me so that I can understand. Why are you trying to harm the prince?”

Daesung looked into his fellow knight’s eyes and realized it was futile to lie to him. “The night that the prince disappeared…my father was forced to…dispose of him by the Duke.”

Seungri in air. “I knew that man was up to no good ever since we were in training.”

“But as you can see my father didn’t do it. He didn’t want to do it. He already had a plan to stow him away at a cottage in the woods to keep him safe. But when he went back to the place he left him the next day, the prince had disappeared.”

“Then why are you following him like this?”

“Because the Duke found out what my father had done. He has my father in the dungeons now. My mother and sister are worried for him. So the Duke came to me and told me to make sure that if I were ever to find the Prince, I would dispose of him to save my father.”

“So you were going to…off his majesty without so much a thought. Am I correct?” Seungri said, sheathing his sword. He was a pretty good judge of when someone was lying or not and Daesung didn’t seem to have any ill intentions towards him.

Daesung shook his head furiously. “Not at all. I was just going to keep his memories from coming back and then I would put a disguise spell on him. Only for the Duke’s eyes. Jiyong is my friend too.”

Seungri smiled at the fellow knight and patted him on the back. “Well, right now we have another problem.”

Daesung looked at him confused. “What do you mean?”

Seungri pointed towards the tent. Clara was standing outside of the tent with wide eyes, but she wasn’t looking at them.

Kwon, or rather Prince Jiyong, was still glowing in a pale blue light. He was still sleep but yet he was slightly floating in the air.

“What’s wrong with him?” Clara asked worriedly. “What did you do to him?” She turned and sent daggers with her eyes towards Daesung.

“I did nothing. That happened before I could do anything.” Daesung said holding his hands up in defense. Then he pointed at the ring around Jiyong’s neck. “There. That’s where it’s coming from.”

Jiyong floated slightly above ground, his hair whipping around his face with a sudden wind. The light had shone brighter as he went higher into the sky.

“Someone please explain what is going on? I heard everything from before but I do not know what this is.” Clara said looking at Seungri desperately.

“Something inside of him is remembering what he should have gone through nine years ago. On the 16^th birthday, everyone in the royal family goes through this…transformation per say. Since he had no memory of who he was for the last ten years, he’s going through this later than he was supposed to.” Seungri explained. Daesung’s eyes widened and he nodded.

“What do you mean?” She cocked her head sideways and scrunched her eyebrows.

Daesung spoke this time.

“He’s getting his magic.”